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IPresentation Dolibai^ 
Ibamilton College 

flovember I6tb 

1897 

lln the CoUeoe (Tbapel 



printed b^ tbe College, 

FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE ALUMNI. 

THE COURIER PRESS, 

Clinton, 1FI. 13. 



By Way of Narrative. '' 



r?^) 



Tuesday, Nov. i6th, 1897, will be a day long remembered by 
those men of Hamilton and their throngs of warm-hearted 
friends who shared in a celebration which was occasioned by 
the completion of two new stately College buildings and the 
rebuilt interior of the old Chapel. Invitations had been issued 
to all the graduates and to many of the larger friendly con- 
stituency of the College. The morning came with uncertain 
skies and the day passed into a wild autumn storm : but, un- 
daunted, a goodly company poured up the venerable hillside 
and crowded the reopened Chapel to the doors. A great num- 
ber of eager and loving letters of remembrance and good-will 
were received from those who could not be present in person. 
The Trustees met at ten in the Library, these out of the full 
twenty-eight being present: Messrs. Kingsley, Miller, Mol- 
LisoN, DiVEN, North, Root, C. A. Hawley, Hudson, Silliman, 
Brockway, Pomeroy, Catlin, Dunham, Tompkins, Stryker, 
Smyth, Locke, Soper, Benedict. As one item of business, it 
was resolved to hold the exercises of next Commencement 
Day (June 30, '98) in the Chapel, whose capacity is now equal, 
or nearly equal, to that of the 'Stone Church' in Clinton. Es- 
corted by the Seniors ('98) the Trustees proceeded toward the 
Chapel, at eleven; across the Campus from Silliman Hall came 
the Faculty preceded by the Juniors ('99); into the bannered 
and shouting line swung '1900,' with drums and fife; after them 
'1901'. Up rose the enthusiastic audience as with rattling cries 
the classes found their places, and then, after an orchestral 
medley of college and popular airs from the musicians of 
Gioscia and Gartland, of Albany, broke out the old strains of 
''Cheer, boys, Cheer' ! The celebration for which three hours 
seemed not too long was begun. Never had the Chapel nor 
any other room witnessed such a racket of enthusiasm for 
Hamilton. Each speaker in turn, and many points and refer- 
ences, brought the college up with banging cheers, treble 
voices chiming in the broadsides, and over and over again it 
was 'one more' and. Rah! Rah! Rah! Hamilton! The solid 
walls will never forget those echoes. 



IM BXCHANQ£. 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



As the guest of honor, Frank S. Black, Governor of New 
York, entered, escorted by Congressman James S. Sherman, 
'78, and a group of distinguished citizens, everything vocal 
broke wide open, and the silken flags waved in the resonant 
air. With grace and dignity, Franklin D. Locke, '64, pre- 
sided. The well-prepared choir gave two College songs: 

"Our inmost love beguiling," 
and 

" With word and will united," 

and at the last the whole crowd joined in these lines: 

Tune: "Knight's Farewell", in C. 

Sing, day of merry greeting ! 

With pulses march-time beating, 
From all life's twilight valleys 

Her boys our True Love rallies ; 
With high acclaim we heed her will, — 
The darling Dame on College Hill ! 

Fond memories unnumbered 

Arouse that long have slumbered, 
Back troop the halcyon mornings 
We hurried at thy warnings : 
Our hearts are thine and all is well, 
Ring Auld lang syne, dear College bell ! 

The old boys and the new ones 

Alike are staunch and true ones ; 
Triumphant be our singing, — 

Set all the old place ringing ! 
For fairer one was never seen. 
And Hamilton shall be our queen ! 

So, while the years grow older, 

Put shoulder firm to shoulder. 
Let century shadows lengthen. 

If love and hope but strengthen ; 
By what is past, for what shall be, 
Our trust stands fast, O God, in Thee ! 

Orchestral music came here and there: but the charm of the 
hours was the convinced and convincing accent of fealty, of 
deep feeling, of determined purpose, which ran thro all the 
spoken words. Unfortunately no exact list was gathered of 
the alumni and guests, but this partial list, in the order of 
classes, names some of the graduates who were present. 
L. M. Miller, Edward North, T. M. Pomeroy, Alex. Dick, D. 
A. Holbrook, T. B. Hudson, W. A. Bartlett, C. C. Kingsley, 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



W. H. Maynard, D. Scovel, Oren Root, A. N. Brockway, T. 
Catlin, G. M. Diven, G. S. Hastings, C. A. Hawley, G. M. 
Weaver, H. P. Bigelow, H. Ward, W. A. Cobb, H. V. Bost- 
wick, F. D. Locke, Elihu Root, D. W. Bigelow, H. B. Tomp- 
kins, J. H. Cunningham, A. C. Soper, E. S. Williams, D. Finn, 
J. D. Henderson, H. H. Benedict, L. R. Foote, C. E. Allison, 
F. H. Gouge, D. H. Carver, A. G. Benedict. H. C. G. Brandt. 
A. S. Hoyt, B. G. Smith, M. W. Stryker, A. M. Wright, Ar. 
Jones, C. S. Lord, D. Holbrook, C. S. Truax, G. P. Bristol, G. 
Griffith, J. S. Sherman, G. E. Dunham, R. R. Lyon, F. H. Peck, 
Gil. Reid, L. N. Southworth, W. M. Griffith, Clinton Scollard, 
W. M. Bristol, F. M. Calder,,F. D. Smyth, H. M. Love, E. B. 
Root, C. H. Davidson, J. B. Rodgers, B. W. Arnold, Edw. 
Fitch, L. G. Colson, J. R. Myers, C. B. Rogers, A. R. Kes- 
singer, Walter Mitchell, Spencer Kellogg, W. H. Squires, E. L. 
Hockridge, C. H. Warfield, M. G. Dodge, F. K. Gibbons, J. D.- 
Ibbotson, C. H. Smyth, D. D. Smyth, T. E. Hayden, D. C. 
Lee, H. P. Osborne, G. M. Weaver, C. H. Dudley, C. A. Eras- 
ure, C. T. Ives, C. W. Mason, S. W. Rice, W. P. Shepard, T. C. 
Brockway, L. N. Foote, C. J. Gibson, D. L. Roberts, V. H. 
Ralston, G. A. Watrous, L J. Greenwood, G. E. Stone, E. S. 
Babcock, H. J. Cookingham, jr., B. B. Taggart, S. N. Thomas, 
A. W. Boesche, C. A. Fetterly, H. K. Webster. 

Pres. Robert E. Jones, D. D., oi Hobart; Dean N. L. Andrews, 
Ph. D., of Colgate ; Mayor Thomas E. Kinney, of Utica; Thom- 
as R. Proctor, Garry A. Willard, Supt. G. A. Blumer, Hon. 
John Williams, Rev. John R. Harding, Rev. Oliver Owen, 
Rev. R. C. Hallock, and scores besides of the citizens of cen- 
tral New York, whose names were not collected, added to the 
brilliant and representative company. 

Some five hundred guests passed to the collation in the 
Soper Gymnasium, where later the Juniors held their Prome- 
nade far into a brilliant and happy night. The new Steuben 
Field was dedicated to victory by a football score of 12-0 over 
the New York University. It was the day of a decade. No 
technical architectural descriptions of the new structures 
are here attempted; they may be found in the generous reports 
given by the Utica, Rome, and Clinton papers of November 17: 
but the architects, Messrs. Carrere and Hastings, of New York, 
and Fredk. H. Gouge, '70, of Utica, were universally praised 
by all who inspected the results of their skill. 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



These were the presentations: 
The Root Hall of Science. 
The Benedict Hall of Languages. 
The rebuilt Chapel interior. 
The stone Apse. 
The Campus addition. 
The Steuben Field. 

The prayer was made by William Alvin Bartlett, D. D., 
'52, and the benediction was given by the venerable Linus M. 
Miller, D. D., '40. 

The brief but hearty and manly remarks of Governor Black 
were received with unbounded cordiality. The College appre- 
ciated the distinguished honor of his presence and showed its 
appreciation heartily. 

These were the various addresses. — 

Franklin Day Locke, A. M., Esq., of Buffalo, Class of '64, 
and President of the day : 

" This is a great day for Hamilton College. In my time here 
we often celebrated union victories, reported or real. We cele- 
brated some election results, but there was even no tradition 
current of such an event as this. And we are all entitled to 
share in the happiness of this great day. The students, pres- 
ent and to come, who will have the immediate enjoyment of 
these good things which are to be given; the President and 
Faculty, who can see in them the reward of good work meriting 
the confidence and backing evidenced by these generous gifts; 
and not only Faculty and students, but all the remaining body 
of Alumni and friends of the old College who believe in it and 
wish it prosperity. 

In the nature of things, the events which we celebrate today 
must mark the beginning of a new era in the life of this insti- 
tution. They mean that under the administration and lead of 
a wise, capable and devoted executive, the Alumni are begin- 
ning to rally. 

And why should not the Alumni rally ! The college was 
never doing better or more effective work than it is today. 
Its tone was never more healthy; its funds and finances were 
never in such good shape; its future was never more full of 
promise. It has now and then had a greater number of stu- 
dents upon its rolls, but the test by which to measure results 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



is not found in mere numbers. The great master of Balliol 
again and again asserted that his success in reorganizing that 
college, which led on to the practical reorganization of all Ox- 
ford, should be attributed to the limited number of students in 
Balliol when he began his operations and his consequent abil- 
ity to reach every one of them with his direct personal influ- 
ence and personal magnetism. I hope that our numbers may 
grow with a healthy growth, but in the same breath I hope 
this will never become a large college; that the time will 
never come when Jones and Smith of the Sophomore class do 
not speak as they pass because they have never chanced to be 
introduced. Our membership, like that of many of our best 
clubs, should be limited to 300 or thereabouts. Then with a 
Faculty in touch with every student, with simple living, with 
an atmosphere discouraging extravagance and the vulgarity of 
waste and display, this college will be at the height of its use- 
fulness, will be doing its full work, and it will be entitled to 
fill and will fill a distinct and important place among the edu- 
cational institutions of the land. I believe that if the life and 
health of our President be spared, the day of full fruition is not 
distant. The true market value of the diploma of this institu- 
tion was never higher than now, and the market is a rising 
market. 

You will observe that I have not gone, and am not going, 
deeply into the questions of difference between the large uni- 
versities on the American plan, and the college, and for several 
reasons. First and foremost, because we are here to celebrate, 
and not to discuss great state questions. Secondly, because I 
have been wisely but strictly limited by the President to eight 
minutes, while Choate and Root spent the better part of sev- 
eral months in properly phrasing a few trivial amendments to 
the constitution of this state, and even the President himself 
seems to have required at least an hour for a partial discus- 
sion of these same questions of difference. And thirdly, be- 
cause I know very little about them. Yet I am prepared 
to maintain three propositions: 

First — That one can obtain as solid and practical an educa- 
tion here, up to a post-graduate course, as in any of the great 
universities of the land. 

Second — That this can be doneatless than half the costinsuch. 

Third — That, except for the few most level-headed and most 



HAMILTON COLLEGE, 



mature students, it can be done at half the risk of shipwreck. 

What old graduate can stand here, in this enlarged and beau- 
tiful chapel, at the opening of this new era, without recalling 
the past ? Seen through twenty or thirty or more years of 
active life, years marked for all of us who have survived them 
by hard work, by petty successes and humiliating defeats, by 
meetings and partings, joys and sorrows, upon my word the 
four years passed here seem simply idyllic. Time has leveled 
the little rough spots. The constant and ever-recurring task, 
the groanings over the difficult passages and worse meters of 
the Agamemnon, the monotonous moral science, the metaphy 
sics, the calculus, the stumbling translations in class, the anxi- 
ety to be called when prepared, the anxiety lest one be called 
when he had shirked due preparation, the calm of evening 
chapel, the walks up and down the hill, most of them with 
men long since dead and gone, the rooms filled with Virginian 
incense, the warm friendships, the comfort of the good book 
and the dressing gown, the rhetorical exercises here, the class 
politics, the discussion of plans for after life, the solemnity of 
the society initiation, the importance of the society secrets and 
of college customs, the lounging on the campus — all are 
blended by time into one quiet picture, good for the weary 
men to look back upon. 

I attended the thirtieth anniversary of my class and received 
several distinct impressions. First, the youth of the students 
surprised me. Our class were of course no older or wiser than 
the like class today, and there were only a few in it who were 
younger than myself, but all alike seemed old and mature to 
me then. In Sophomore year I had probably more confidence 
in my own judgment or in the judgment of my classmates than 
I have today in the collective wisdom of the Senate of the 
United States! Again, the age of the men of my time and the 
changes in them shocked me. Boys, dapper when we parted, 
careful as to collars and cuffs and neckties, who would have 
thought the wearing of an ill-fitting pair of trousers equivalent 
to loss of property and position, had been changed into grey- 
headed, long-whiskered, hard-working men of business, or 
over-worked, careworn clergymen or lawyers, careless of dress, 
and bearing in face and manner the evidence of the wear and 
tear of three decades. Another surprise was in the universal 
shrinkage of dimensions. The limited length, breadth and 



8 MA MIL TON COLLEGE. 

height of the audience room of this Chapel as it then was, the 
limited length, breadth and height of the class rooms and of 
the sleeping rooms in the college were incomprehensible. 

Death and change had removed all the Faculty of our day, 
save one. Prof. North alone was left — the same learned, gen- 
tle, kindly man of thirty years before. He is here today to 
join in our celebration, and for this, among our other good 
things, we are devoutly thankful. May God's richest blessing 
rest upon that man to the last day of his life, and may that 
life, already carried past the allotted years of three score and 
ten, be yet long spared to his family, to this College, and to 
its Alumni, who to a man look upon him with love and vener- 
ation. 

There was another member of the Faculty who had the entire 
confidence and high regard of every student. He was a quiet 
man, with a bushy beard, and with bushy eyebrows covering 
the brightest of eyes; a man of solid learning, of impressive 
mien, of great personal dignity, terse, even chary, of speech, 
but speaking to the point when he did speak — always kind, 
always commanding profound respect, and yet as simple and 
unassuming as a child in manner. That was Oren Root, the 
elder, as I remember him. His life work was here, and his 
work was well done. It is fitting that such a man should have 
such a monument erected on that very spot yonder, by such a 
son. Is is hard that he could not have lived to see that son 
standing well up among the half dozen leading members of the 
bar of the state and nation. I thank God that he did live to 
see the promise of that of which we have lived to see the ful- 
filment. 

Let us all take new heart and fresh courage from the events 
of this day. Let us each in our several degrees be faithful to 
the old institution as these good friends whose generous acts 
we meet to celebrate have proven themselves faithful. For 
myself I plead guilty to great dereliction in the past. Pos- 
sibly for some of my sins of omission I could make fairly 
reasonable excuse, but for the most of them I find none worthy 
of presentation. I hope to do better in the future. Few of 
us can give noble structures or large sums of money, but we 
can always hold up the hands of our President. We can in- 
terest ourselves in the College; we can speak up for it, in 
season and out of season, and there may be now and then 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



some of us able to help its treasury or add to its properties a 
little, and thus all, in one way or another, shall aid and advance 
the good work." 

The Hon. Elihu Root, LL. D., Esq., '64, of New York, with 
a deliberation of manner, and an impressiveness which cannot 
here be reproduced, said: 

*'Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Trust: It 
is but a perfunctory office to present that which has already 
been given. The Hall of Science stands upon a site which 
has been the property of this institution for more than a cen- 
tury. As every stone was added, one to another, it was de- 
voted to the service of the College. Solid and substantial as 
the edifice appears, it is the least substantial of all the things 
which make HamiltonCollege what it is. The devotion to truth, 
the love of learning, the noble and simple lives which for more 
than a century have consecrated this ground, the high en- 
deavor which pervades the atmosphere of this home of learn- 
ing and of literature, these are the substantial elements of the 
life that shall endure after the stones and mortar have crum- 
bled into dust, enduring as the life of man aad the progress of 
the world." 

Next, Henry Harper Benedict, A. M., '69, of New York: 

"In presenting to Hamilton College the Hall of Languages 
which in the past few months has risen upon the cainpus and 
is now approaching completion, I shall not attempt a labored 
speech. I can only tell you in the simplest way how the Hall 
of Languages came to be built. In 1894 I came to Commence- 
ment for the first time in twenty years. On the evening of 
Commencement Day, as I was taking the train for home, Dr. 
Stryker said, in bidding me goodbye, 'I shall keep my eye on 
you.' That is how the Hall of Languages came to be built! 

Broken health sent me into exile for two and a half years. 
Dr. Stryker invested a portion of the College funds in five cent 
postage stamps; wherefore I was compelled to reply, and the 
result of all this was that, returning home in the autumn of '96, 
I saw that the time was near when I must face the inevitable. 

Most of you will recall a story told by one of the speakers 
at the last Commencement dinner. A man was coming home 
late from his club. As he made his uncertain way up the street 



10 HAMILTON COLLEGE. 

he came in contact with a tree. Recoiling some paces, from 
the shock, he started on again, and directly ran against the 
same tree. This occurred a third time; then he sank upon the 
curb stone, and, burying his face in his hands, exclaimed, 'Lost, 
lost, in an impenetrable forest!' This was my position; and 
I assert that anybody who runs against Dr. Stryker two or 
three times will think himself lost in an impenetrable forest. 
But there was still enough left of me to make an investigation 
of Hamilton College before deciding to make an investment 
in Hamilton College. Was Hamilton College dead or dying? 
In the years that 1 had been neglecting my alma mater I had 
fallen out of touch with educational affairs, and accordingly I 
sought the ablest counsel and asked many questions. I took 
very little for granted, First I must know whether the great 
universities had absorbed the functions and taken the place of 
the college. Today this question seems rather elementary, 
but it did not seem so then. Today it is clear to me that the 
functions of the college and those of the university are totally 
different, and should be kept distinct. The function of the 
college is to discipline the mind and develop its powers; that 
of the university is to impart instruction and pursue investiga- 
tion along special lines. The work of the college is to increase 
intellectual and spiritual power; the work of the university is 
to open the way for the application of that power to the con- 
duct of life. A man who is to be an engineer needs instruc- 
tion in engineering; the university will furnish that instruction, 
but before this he needs the development, the expansion, the 
toughening of his mental powers, to render him capable of be- 
ing an engineer. So of medicine, so of theology, so of any- 
thing; the college must lay the foundation, the university must 
build the superstructure. 

We have in this country the widest opportunities in the 
world. There are no classes across whose boundary lines it 
is impossible or difficult to pass; anyone who has the ability 
may go from centre to circumference. Our free institutions 
and our political equality are our glory and our boast, and we 
think of the open door to individual success as the way to a 
higher level of manhood than the rest of the world has known, 
or ever can reach, until the dawn of the universal republic. 

But every question has two sides. Personal ambition, which 
in America is stimulated to the highest point, is a constant 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. II 

source of temptation to superficiality. We are feverishly eager 
for quick results and impatient of preparation. We need no 
forty years in Midian to fit us for law givers and leaders of 
the chosen people! We want to build without foundation, as 
the Normans built their cathedrals, forgetful or ignorant of the 
collapse that is sure to come. Hence the necessity in this 
country, more than in any other, for the college (the Germans 
do well to call it the gymnasium) as distinct from the univer- 
sity. 

Indeed, I do not think it pressing the argument too far to 
say that the very existence of the free institutions of which we 
boast, may depend at last upon the work of the college. The 
most enthusiastic patriotism can not shut its eyes to the fact 
that our institutions are still on trial. They have not passed 
beyond the experimental stage. The problems of republican 
government are not yet solved. We are the first successful 
republic, and we have not yet succeeded. 

The problems of constitutional liberty must be solved here. 
Perhaps, alas! the great battle (I speak literally) must be 
fought here; certainly so, unless we have a deeper discipline, a 
higher manhood and a more intelligent patriotism than we 
have at present. This country, then, needs the college — no 
need, perhaps, is greater. But does she need Hamilton Col- 
lege ? Conditions change; new adaptations become necessary; 
and to all this Hamilton College is alive; but to the essentials 
of the tried curriculum she is committed, and avoiding crude 
theories and hasty experiment she will pursue her steady and 
majestic way. I have found at Hamilton College an enlarged 
and strengthened Faculty. (New men mostly; some who were 
coming as I was leaving; and one ever dear face from the still 
earlier time.) I have found increased endowments and im- 
proved equipment; courses of study broadened and deepened 
to include the ancient culture and reflect the best of modern 
thought; a fine college spirit and an earnestness of purpose 
among the students; renewed interest among the Alumni; I 
have found a President whose versatility, whose breadth of 
view and whose exhaustive mastery of detail in theory and in 
practice, are the astonishment of every one who has followed 
his career since he came to Clinton. For once I wish this 
modest man were out of sight and hearing, so that I might 
without indelicacy say a word about him and his work. Or- 



1 2 HA MIL TON COLLEGE. 

ganizer, financier, disciplinarian, teacher, man of affairs, 
preacher, orator, leader, winning by native gentleness or com- 
pelling by resistless force of will, imparting everywhere his 
own noble enthusiasm and impressing upon every one within 
his influence the stamp of his splendid Christian spirit. 

These are the things that my investigations have revealed to 
me. My conclusion is that the American college is a necessi- 
ty, and that Hamilton College is an uncommonly vigorous 
and lively corpse! To the facts as I found them I appeal for 
any required justification of my gift to my Alma Mater. 

Now comes the question, who should have the credit ? Dr. 
Stryker has attended to every detail of the building of the 
Hall of Languages, from first to last. I have drawn three 
checks; he has done the rest. Few things in my life have 
given me greater pleasure than the drawing of the three checks; 
few things will ever give me greater pleasure here below than 
the thought that the usefulness of this College will be enhanced 
by the possession of the Hall of Languages. I hope other 
sons and friends of Hamilton will treat themselves to a similar 
feast. It is a feast that leaves no bitter taste in the mouth and 
no headache the next morning." 

Horace B. Silliman, LL. D., of Cohoes, was the next speaker. 
He said: 

"Dr. Stryker said to me that I could speak as an adopted 
son of Hamilton. I have begun to feel as tho I was an adopted 
father. The relation is a peculiar and most pleasant one. I 
can go back of where Benedict started. No doubt the eye of 
Dr. Stryker had much to do with it. But the spirit of Hamil- 
ton had more to do with it, twenty years ago implanting in 
the heart and mind of Mr. Benedict that which is better than 
what is so much sought after by those who seek the approving 
murmur of the shallows. In his heart was planted a love of 
true classical education. Because he was true to the human- 
ities, he built this hall. He did well to build it. It not only 
gives needed class room, but it will serve as a monument to 
the classical spirit of Hamilton. Long may she endure and ever 
broaden in the departments of scholarship. May the proud 
fame of Hamilton as a classical college be perpetuated as long 
as Doric simplicity shall be honored, or the acanthus leaf crown 
with beauty the Corinthian column, or the memory of the be- 



Hamilton college. 



13 



loved and honored 'Old Greek' shall endure immortal as the 
everlasting hills which his long and faithful services have con- 
secrated to pure classical education. The Hall of Science 
was built in commemoration of a name which always has been, 
is now, and for many years to come will be, honored in its 
history and experience. It is built to show that Hamilton is 
not merely a classical school. While she is not apeing those of 
more pretensions, she still pretends and intends to give to 
every student here a fundamental and thoro education in 
everything which may fit a man for that all around life for which 
he is made. May this feature of Hamilton College remain. 
I believe in every sphere of science, which is classified knowledge; 
everything which teaches history and raises it to a higher level 
will find a place in Hamilton. There has not been room here 
before, but there has been room at the top, and Hamilton has 
filled it, too. Hamilton has never been cowardly in her recog- 
nition of the Christian religion. She has always been true and 
undefiled before God the Father. She has always been faith- 
ful in studying the truth. Her young men have been 
taught that which enables them to say not creed, but credo. 
The Hamilton man always says T believe it,' and he is not 
afraid or ashamed to say so. The fathers built well and wisely 
•when they built this Chapel, so that here this element might 
find lodgment and a home. Today I can congratulate the 
President, who has had his eye on this buiding also. He has 
seen to it thit everything that shall make attractive this place 
shall be added to it. May it long have this characteristic. 
May it give to every young man fixed principles that shall 
find lodgment in his heart. May the student always retain the 
memory of the Chapel and the exercises that lifted him above 
all other sciences and all other language, and which led him 
to say, T believe in truth, and I am not ashamed to advocate 
and live the truth.' " 

The Hon. Chauncey S. Truax, A. M., Esq., '75, of New York: 

"After having viewed this morning, as I have done, the two 
magnificent structures which stand as evidence of the love . of 
Hamilton's sons, it is with feelings akin to timidity that I com- 
ply with the request of the President, . however cordially ex- 
tended. Of course I realize that in comparison with these of- 
ferings, the humble gift of mine is but as the widow's mite, and 



14 HAMILTON COLLEGE. 

for the purposes of celebration nothing is needed but silence, 
and but little of that. Yet the consideration shown by your 
President has been gratifying to me because I interpreted it as 
a recognition on his part of what I would do if I could. No 
matter how tender may be the recollections of college life, the 
tenderest and best are those that centre around this dear old 
Chapel. They are the sweetest of our memories, no matter 
how reluctantly we may have obeyed the clang of the metal 
tongue that summoned us to daily duty. Right here have been 
developed those characteristics that have made Hamilton 
College respected not only through the length and breadth of 
this state, but in all this land, producing men who are gifted 
not only in knowledge, but in impressing that knowledge on 
the listening and reading public. Every one realizes that to 
the efforts put forth here much is due of his after success or 
reputation. Here we were taught to recite and speak what we be- 
lieved, and as if we believed it. You may call it 'artificial natural- 
ness, but Demosthenes, Cicero and Webster practiced it. We hear 
a great deal said about the small colleges. Hamilton is classed 
among them. People forget that the individual should not be 
judged by his size. David compared with Goliath was a laugh- 
ing stock. It is the quality of the product that tells; not the 
quantity. Our graduates are few in number, but their achieve- 
ments are many. One need but recall the names of Dwight, 
Charles P. Kirkland, Barnes, Hastings, Hawley and Warner 
and fifty more to demonstrate our wealth. Hamilton College 
does not need students so much, but more of that by which 
her instructors may secure adequate compensation for the ser- 
vices they have rendered and which they will continue to 
render. And in conclusion let me say for our College what Mar- 
garet said to Gavin in 'The Little Minister': 'You're not what 
I would call particularly large, but you're just the size I like.' " 

Hamilton B Tompkins, A. M., Esq., '65, of New York: 

"When good old Dominie Kirkland, with faith in God, in 
himself, and in the future, founded this institution and ex- 
pressed the wish that it might grow and flourish, it is pleasant 
to believe he looked forward and saw this day. As this insti- 
tution was dear to him, it is dear to us and to its loyal sons 
who come back bringing their sheaves and endeavoring to 
cany out the work of its noble founder, Hamilton College 



HAMIL TON COLLEGE. 1 5 

has received much, and altho it needs more, it is still mod- 
est and doesn't want the Earth, Under the increase of its funds 
and its additional stately buildings it did seem as if additional 
room was needed. To afford space for athletic sports, to en- 
large the campus, more room was called for. I have been 
glad to furnish the addition. I ask you to receive the addition 
to the campus, and with it the full assurance of my continued 
interest in the welfare of my Alma Mater." 

Response for John R. Myers. President Stryker said: 

"The gentleman who has given us the Athletic Field is too 
modest to face this company. His name is John R. Myers. 
He is of the class of 1887, a class always distinguished for its 
numbers and scholarship, and which will be more and more 
distinguished. At Mr. Myers' request it is to be called after that 
drill master, who, so long ago, assisted in laying the corner 
stone of Hamilton Oneida Academy, — Baron Steuben." 

Accepting the gifts, the president of the day, Mr. Locke, said: 

*Tn behalf of the Board of Trustees and of all the friends of 
this College, I declare that with full and grateful hearts we ac- 
cept these munificent gifts. Each is noble in itself — and yet 
each stands for far more than the amount of money involved, 
generous as that amount may be. Because the beneficence of 
each donor today shall be an incentive to other men to go and 
do likewise. Our benefactors can rest assured that the admin- 
istration of affairs by the Board of Trustees shall be such as to 
make the most effective use of these buildings and these 
grounds for the advancement of the true interests of the Col- 
lege. It has sometimes happened that a donor has lived to re- 
gret his bestowal of money for charitable or educational uses. 
But all may rest asured that so far as it depends upon your 
Board, no such regret shall follow here, Mere words of thanks 
— mere expressions of gratitude, seem hollow and unmeaning 
in such a case as this, and I shall not attempt to utter them. 
The pace has been set for the Alumni, present and to come. 
Our prayer is that all may keep it to the best of their ability." 

Prof. Abel Grosvenor Hopkins, Ph. D., '66, responded for 
the Faculty, in a congratulatory address. He said: 

"One would need to be a polyglot or to have a megaphone 
in order to collect into one expression all the sentiments of this 



1 6 HA MIL TON COLLEGE. 

many-tongued and many-headed Faculty. It might have been 
proper that our sentiments should have been expressed in all 
the languages taught here, from Hebrew to Anglo Saxon, so 
that you might have seen how much we know, or don't know. 
But for lack of a more scholastic vehicle for our thoughts, we 
are obliged to come to plain English. You know that when a 
young lady is to be married and congratulations are somewhere 
in order, some well-meaning people are often confused as to 
whether they should congratulate the lady or the gentleman. 
I am in no such predicament today as to whether I should con- 
gratulate the Trustees or the Faculty. I extend congratula- 
tions to you both; to you, gentlemen, for all that the generosity 
of some of your number has enabled you to add to the good 
name and fame of this hillside, and for the rich and honorable 
satisfaction which you must have in these splendid resuHs of 
that large-minded generosity. To the Faculty and the College 
congratulations are in order for new and ample opportunities. 
Hamilton is coming to her own, and better still, her own are 
coming to Hamilton. We know that stone walls can not make 
a college any more than they can make a church or state; that 
all that we see is but the shell or the body in which the col- 
lege, the brotherhood of scholars, the guild of men of letters, 
lives. We know that the strength of church and state and 
college lies in its men, its loyal sons, high-minded and large- 
hearted men who recognize the stewardship of wealth and the 
privilege of service. May that goodly line in Hamilton never 
cease. 

I am to speak for the Faculty, but I hardly know where to 
begin. Every faculty has a beginning, but no end. Men may 
come and go, and classes, too; but the Faculty, like the Board 
of Trust, goes on forever. 

I want to offer congratulations and acknowledgements today 
in behalf of a Faculty which is not here; who rest from their 
labors. It is more than a mere fancy with me that they share 
with us in this rejoicing. If I might grow scriptural without 
irreverence or encountering the charge of trifling with sacred 
things, I should say with all seriousness to at least one of your 
number: 'Your father rejoiced to see this day, and he saw it 
and was glad.' I believe that he and others with him looked 
forward to some such day as this. It was with the eye and 
faith of pioneers that these men labored here. I acknowledge 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



17 



gratefully and reverently their devotion, their self sacrifice, 
their poorly-requited toil. We stand on the foundation which 
they builded, and which they laid broad and deep. I offer you 
the congratulations of that Faculty who plucked the very stars 
from the heavens and set them in the crown of Hamilton, a 
faculty which rifled earth and sea and forest and plain of their 
treasures; which gathered rock and crystal, and insect, and 
flower and made those collections which were the marvel of 
all who saw them. Some of those men wrought in so many lines 
that it would seem as if they had been superficial in all; and 
yet they worked so profoundly in each that the wonder 
is that they had any time for the others. With our modern 
subdivison of labor, we find it hard to believe that one man 
could have been a most accomplished mathematician and at 
at the same time an expert in botany, geology, conchology, 
and mineralogy, besides being thoroly informed in several 
other studies, such as landscape gardening, and numismatics. 
There were giants in those days, but they were kindly, simple 
hearted men who with all their learning felt that like their 
great predecessor they were simply picking up a few curious 
stones on the shore of God's ocean of eternal and infinite truth. 
And I must express the joy and congratulations of the Fac- 
ulty which is here, the heirs and successors of those who are 
gone. Gentlemen, by making our work easier you have made 
it harder. We know that every new opportunity means added 
obligations. Better facilities, better service. We shall find it 
hard I fear, to live up to all this comfort and luxury. It's all 
very well to say that a hemlock plank with a great teacher at 
one end is a good enough university for the ambitious student 
at the other end. I think that even Mr. Garfield might have 
imbibed his philosophy with a little more relish if Mark Hop- 
kins could have listened to him in such new halls as these. I 
confess for myself that I feel even more devout and worship- 
ful in a beautiful room like this than in a barn. There is a re- 
fining and uplifting influence in such surroundings. I can un- 
derstand the great influence which comes from fine and his- 
toric environments. The boy at an English school or univer- 
sity is constantly under the eyes of the great spirits of the past. 
Their very forms and faces look down upon him from the walls 
out of canvas or marble. These are the men who made Eng- 



ig HAMILTON COLLEGE. 

land what she is. They played cricket or football at Harrow 
or Eton or Rugby; and then they played rougher games at 
Waterloo and Trafalgar. These are the men who led her ar- 
mies and fought her battles and made her laws. These are 
they who in church and state, as statesmen, bishops, orators, 
scholars, have made the name of England great and honored 
around the globe. It is a splendid thing to feel oneself in 
touch with such a company; to feel the thrill of a common 
nationality, intellectually and spiritually; to know that the 
tongue of Shakespeare, and Milton, and Sidney, and Bacon is 
your tongue. I see in my fancy those bare and new walls 
decorated with whatever will give help or inspiration to the 
student. Faces of the far distant or the nearer past, maps, 
photographs, casts, all manner of illustrative work. Gentle- 
you have made made it easier to climb the hill than it was 
twenty-five years ago. There's more to come for. It is easier 
to go to the Klondike now than it was three years ago. No 
matter how difficult of access, if you bury treasure there, men 
will seek it out. 

But my congratulation lengthens out. It would be no extrava- 
gance for me to express the acknowledgments of that Faculty 
which is to come; which will not have the opportunity of say- 
ing this to you for themselves. You have put the future also in 
your debt, and that's the only way a man can pay his debts to 
the past. You have builded not for today or tomorrow, but 
for the ages. For all the past and future from Azel Backus 
down to Wilhelm Boesche, and those who shall succeed, I ex- 
press hearty acknowledgements and congratulations. 

I think it more than a happy accident that these two halls, 
of science and language, should rise on this hill, side by side 
at once and moving forward side by side to completion. The 
humanities and the sciences have not always been tha best of 
friends. They have too often been stout and angry with each 
other. But the word science is losing its narrow application. 
Science is organized knowledge in contrast with undigested 
knowledge. Let us, on this happy occasion, hail the marriage, 
at least on this hillside, of these not estranged pursuits and 
let us wed them both to reverence and faith. Let science see 
thro nature to nature's God. Let language sound the depths 
of the human spirit and trace the struggles of the soul after a 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



19 



higher power and life; and over all let there brood the spirit 
of faith, culture sanctified by faith and^charity, so that no light 
which is kindled hereshalll lure men to shipwreck but shall 
guide and help them on their way." 

"We want Black!" was the strong shout thrice repeated by 
the students, and as the Governor arose he was greeted with 
rousing cheers. Governor Black said: 

"Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen — I will not detain 
you long, but I wish to express my interest in this celebration. 
Every school will rejoice with you at the great prosperity which 
now distinguishes the career of Hamilton College. And when 
the schools rejoice the conntry must pay attention, for in the 
halls and at the desks are now developing those forces on 
which the welfare of the future will depend. Struggle is al- 
ways the order of existence. It is the price we pay for living. 
It extends to every spot where natural laws hold sway. The 
centres of trade and population are no more its subjects than 
the remote and sheltered crevice, where the smallest forms of 
life contend for existence. Contention is the root of every 
enterprise and the cause of many failures. A blessing today, 
a curse tomorrow, it is still the order everywhere. We cannot 
change this tendency, for it is fixed and immutable, and the 
motions of the universe depend upon it. But insignificant as 
we are, we may still impress ourselves upon and in some meas- 
ure guide the forces whose influence will be felt forever. We 
cannot stop the war, but we can aid which ever side we choose. 
Character, charity, the graces and sublimities of life, are not so 
high but that every man can crowd them up a little higher, and 
after all is said, these are the great things for which the wise 
and valiant have always striven. 

Thro all the history of the world the struggle has been main- 
ly between the uper and the under. Equality will never be 
attained. One must have the mastery. In this fact lies the 
scholar's opportunity. He may throw his strength for educa- 
tion in the fight against ignorance, for integrity against dis- 
honor. He will have much to do, for the forces against him 
are naturally stronger than his own. In the struggle between 
vice and rectitude, between enlightenment and barbarism, the 
disposition, but not the course, tends slightly downward, for 
there is in morals and in civilization a law of gravitation^ and 



20 HAMILTON COLLEGE. 

the side which pulls toward the ground has the advantage 
which the law provides. It is easy to stand on the earth, but 
it is difficult to remain long above it. To stay in the valley 
where we are calls for no effort, but to climb the hill requires 
labor from which the majority will shrink. The view from the 
summit may be clear and enticing, but it must be earned at 
the cost of long and arduous endeavor. 

It is your duty and your great distinction, gentlemen of 
Hamilton College, to encourage that love of contemplation, 
that intimacy with the ideal and the generous, that subjective 
strength, which makes men feel and understand that the great 
triumphs of the world must be achieved by the close alliance 
of intelligence, morality and courage. You must enlist in the 
cause of enthusiasm and resolve that the cause will feel the 
stimulus of your contact and support, and the tendency of the 
struggle will rise steadily toward a clearer atmosphere. Ham- 
ilton College has had an illustrious career. Her sons have 
adorned the various pursuits of life and attained the rewards 
of long and brilliant service. That they remember now the 
college which helped and sustained them in their youth is to 
her credit and their own. The cause of education will com- 
mend and praise them, and this occasion will be to them a 
proud and lasting tribute. 

Perhaps I shall be forgiven if I extend to you my sincere 
congratulations that the presidency of this college is held by 
one whose attainments as a scholar, as an orator, as an execu- 
tive, are attracting the attention of the appreciative and 
thoughtful everywhere. You know and admire him, but your 
association is so close and personal that I have yielded to this 
temptation to show him to you as a stranger sees him. 

I thank you for the kindness which has filled this day with 
pleasure and which now fills me with reluctance for its close.'' 

President Stryker then gave the following address : 

'Tt is my earnest wish that the Institution may grow 
and flourish ; that its advantages may be permanent and 
extensive ; and that under the smiles of the god of wls- 
dom it may prove an eminent means of diffusing useful 
knowledge, enlarging the bounds of human happiness, aid- 
ing the reign of virtue and the kingdom of the blessed 
Redeemer." 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 21 

So spake Samuel Kirkland when long ago he freighted this 
enterprise with his gifts and his prayers and committed it to 
the waves of time. The faith of that good man is still a legacy 
and a benediction, and we adopt its calm and stately phrase as 
the utterance of our own well-warranted hope for that which 
shall here continue and increase when all of us are dead. 

With mutual congratulations, with abundant greetings to 
the friends who today gather with us, and above all with grati- 
tude and thanksgiving to Him whose grace is our present en- 
largement and our warrant for expectancy, we are assembled. 
Hail to tJie day, to the loyal and generous friends who have 
made it, to those who in long years to come shall share its 
benefits, to those whom it shall summon to new confidence and 
incite to emulation, and to the venerable and ever youthful 
College of our Love ! 

My formal share in this occasion shall be the cheerful task 
of reminiscence and a sketch of things hoped for. I say my 
formal share — my inner and personal gratitude must go un- 
spoken, not, perhaps, unguessed. 

Five years ago this month, with far more of timidity than 
would have been wise to have told, I gave myself to the duties 
of an office whose exactions and possibilities of failure I even 
then partly comprehended. Gratitude compelled me. I was un- 
der no hallucinations. I had at least measured the situation. I 
trusted the constituency of Hamilton and I longed to see her 
right to be and to increase vindicated. No day of these five 
years has found me sorry or doubtful, and now with larger 
hope than ever, and daring in God's help the undeciphered 
future, I pledge myself anew with good heart and willing ser- 
vice to the deepening and broadening influences which are our 
destiny and our whole desire. 

First of all, I am thankful to the friendliness and growing 
faith of those who have been graduated since 1892, and of the 
men now classed here. Not all at once have I found the good 
will which, if it cannot be deserved and secured, must in its 
lack shut the main door of usefulness and peace. There have 
been emergencies ; but they now in the aorist, and a certain 
cynical and captious temper toward the College and its con- 
stituted authority has gone for good. From those who once 
imposed some difficult ordeals I have long since had the most 
convincing assurances of good will, and, what is far more of 



22 HA MIL TON COLLEGE. 

importance, of their utmost zeal and loyalty for the mother of 
us all. Confident that if one is determinedly just and not un- 
gentle he may be sure of ultimate respect, I have tried to stand 
tJiere, and for whatever cordiality has been added I have 
humbly thanked God. I must resent and repudiate the false 
theory that — if each is genuine and frank — there need be any 
gap in good fellowship between teacher and student. 

Of all my duties here, most I value that opportunity which 
permits me the large share of the religious services in this 
room. Some of these College Sundays I shall never forget. 

With all recognition of the open hands that have amplified 
and adorned this Chapel, let us give it anew to the breath of 
worship and the word of the living God. Here may the supreme 
sanctions chasten and charter all other gains of knowledge, 
and many a soul say of this room, — I was born there ! 

After this necessary recess of seven weeks we return with 
unexpected appreciation to the old ways. May the day never 
dawn that shall find our venerable tradition of daily prayer 
and praise forsworn or undervalued. The education that for- 
gets God omits its major premise. It is reverence and right- 
eousness that cleanse and lift all true ideals, that make de- 
cision quick and sure, that sturdy and steady the heart, that 
give respect for all the holy mystery of living. The trustful 
are the trusty. Only a sense of God can fit us to be profound- 
ly helpful men. Our constant assembling here is of no small 
value in solidifying that mutuality of interest and concern 
which is of the essence of the intense commonweal so vital to 
a true college. I pity the schools of whatever size and fame 
where the undergraduates have no obligation to meet as a unit 
for all their four years. Nor do I forget the many influences 
that in this room have nourished patriotism. Not without 
permanent effect have these walls rung with the quoted elo- 
quence of great leaders and the nation's songs. The periods 
of Webster and Curtis sent many a boy down the Hill to the 
great war. With her Continental colors Hamilton may well 
stand for loyalty to the flag which in this county first rustled 
to the air. By the eagerness of a generous friend a broad 
American flag has this year been sent, in the name of the 
College, to all the four hundred school-houses of Oneida. 

I congratulate the present classes upon the numbers that 

five years have augmented from 125 to 160. You will talk of 

L.of C. 



Hamilton college. 53 

this day to your boys, and will be glad you cast in your lot 
with Hamilton when she was growing in numbers and facilities. 
But men are primary. Spirit, not numbers, must be our first 
thought. Let honest work still grow among us who now are 
here. Let all littleness, and clannishness, and petty politics 
die down, and let a common loyalty make ours an uncommon 
life. Let every man count one, no more, no less. This hill- 
side has never bred snobbery nor simpering. The keenest 
standards of downright manliness and courageous fidelity to 
principle cannot be too good for our daily use. Noble indi- 
viduality claims something far more valid and genial than a 
cold external decorum — even an ardent conscientiousness, an un- 
pretended sympathy, a generous and expectant heart ! God 
grant us that, and men may come and men may go, — Hamil- 
ton will last. 

A college is a great beneficiary institution. Its members are 
admitted to privileges for which they can offer no equivalent 
in coin : but which a noble use can both recognise and advance. 
Character cannot be bought or bestowed — it comes to those 
who, to use the terms of a rather raw maid-servant, " do their 
own reaching " ! The men we want here are men who, with 
indomitable pluck, by resoluteness, and tenacity, and conscien- 
tious grit, shall conquer obstacles, as this son of Dartmouth 
conquered them who has come to the headship of this splen- 
did state of New York, and who today honors as a thrice-wel- 
come guest our glad thanksgiving. 

For the Faculty of Hamilton, first let me point to its in- 
crease in numbers, then testify to their efficiency and fidelity, 
and best, to their unity of purpose, undisturbed by clique or cabal. 
These have been years when theory and administration have 
been much methodized, when control has been recognized, and 
impartiality has deserved and found respect, when the curricu- 
lum has been greatly enlarged and enriched. 

There is an undivided purpose for the common good. 
There are no soft and shoddy courses. We are trying our best 
to do a work which graduating men and our successors will 
honor. 

Sure that "Simple duty hath no place for fear," many of 
you, my brethren in this sweet and sacred charge, have waited 
longer and less impatiently than I, for such signs as now glance 
brightly of a great renaissance. 



^4 HAMILTON COLLEGE. 

Let us again charge ourselves to remember what our ideals 
for this College should include and what exclude, — what a 
College may be and may have, yet not be great. 

Beyond all inculcation is the fine and sure contagion of the 
scholarly instinct: but beyond that is the personal contact and 
compulsion of character. Our examples as diligent students 
and learners, must be crowned by our examples as true men. 
Not to fail, we must inspire others to live, for life's own sake. 
This implies life, both mental and moral. To evoke another's 
best, to rouse aptitude and stimulate the particular man toward 
excellent ambition, to beckon and encourage — this is our call- 
ing. Such work it is makes the " small college " large. 

Professor Nash in his powerful recent treatise upon " The 
Genesis of the Social Conscience " quotes (and it is most ap- 
posite to our immediate thought) — quotes Addison's saying 
concerning the clergyman who belonged to the Spectator's 
Club, that " whenever he attended its meetings he gave each 
member of it a new taste for himself." 

And our Trustees. They stand solidly for an honest stew- 
ardship, and to their wise hands large things may safely be 
committed. They have a living interest and are pledged to 
hopefulness and advance. Their time and influence is cheer- 
fully given. They have offered the best guarantees of their 
faith in Hamilton by their fidelity to her concerns. 

Good friends, it is a privilege to share your counsels, to ex- 
perience your courtesy, and to be responsible to your judgment. 

" God's ways seem dark: but soon or late 
They touch the shining hills of day." 

In these years of waiting I have often taken comfort from a 
fine sentence of Henry Ward Beecher's, — *T do not know from 
what quarter of the sky the first blue bird will come in the 
spring: but I know that the spring will come on the wings of 
a thousand birds! 

You have stood watch in some ragged weathers and past 
bleak coasts : but now we are rounding the Cape of Good 
Hope and homeward bound. Eighty-five years, and all's well ! 

When on the 17th of January, 1893, you risked much upon an 
uninsured venture, you listened kindly to an inaugural thesis 
wherein I dared to outline many needs and prospective ad- 
vances. Some of those remarks I now recall to you. 

I spoke of our chapel spire. Then and there one undertook 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 2$ 

its repair, which was effected at the cost of ;^i,300. Our chapel, 
the same, and yet how different, stands as a mosaic where 
many tributes join toward a full result. The old interior could 
not have been dearer to any of you than it was to me, but 
from the first I longed and planned for the day when we could 
spare its rear rooms, and enlarge it to these good dimensions, 
worthy now for all its constant uses, and destined I trust to 
be the scene of all our after Commencement days. We are 
grateful for the hospitality of the old Stone Church in Clinton, 
and still shall often claim its continuance; but let the great 
day be here. It will be popular with our alumni beyond the 
most ardent prediction. They will feel that they have come 
home, and with all their gathering tribes will say, "Peace be 
within thy walls!" 

Chauncey S. Truax, of '75, has built this noble apse. It is 
to be no aching void. Before the end of January next it will 
contain an organ, costing ^4,000, the gift of Henry Harper 
Benedict, of the class of '69. 

Our good friend, Dr. Silliman,who has provided for this main 
room, could not, with any equal sum, have done so much to 
better our estate. Here stands the beautiful new pulpit furni- 
ture, the gift of one whose husband loved this college, and his 
name is now upon the chair he founded — the "Walcott" chair. 
The Hymnals here to be used are the gift of the President of 
today, Franklin Locke. And I am this morning able to an- 
nounce that under Mr. Locke's leadership the Alumni of West- 
ern New York will contribute ^2,000 for the renewal of the ves- 
tibule and stairways and front windows, to comport with all 
the rest. Then this dear old building will be good for another 
eighty years. I confidently hope to see these windows filled 
one by one with beautiful glass in portraiture and memorial of 
many of our most revered officers and graduates of old whose 
voices were once heard here, and whose works do follow them. 

That winter Tuesday I also spoke of Fellowships and a Hall 
of Science. From the same hand that rebuilt the spire the 
Root Fellowship and the Root Hall of Science have come, 
and unrequested. This filial memorial to Oren Root, L, L. D., 
'33, who so cheerfully gave this College all his noble life, is 
dear for the name that it honors, for the hand that gives it, 
and for its proof and prophecy of how love to this College 
continues from generation to generation. In memoriam esto 



26 HAMILTON COLLEGE. 



perpetua. Truly here has been a radical friend. Nor 
is this all. For by his persistency and acumen, for us and for 
all concerned, the Fayerweather bequests have been upheld 
against long and shrewd controversy in all the New York 
courts. The latest appeal to Federal jurisdiction must post- 
pone, but it is confidently believed cannot thwart a testament 
sustained by so many and various decisions, nor hinder us 
from duly receiving the whole of considerably more than 
;^ 1 00,000. 

I spoke, then, of the division of certain departments, and 
now Elocution is no more combined with English Literature. 
Biology and Chemistry now are distinct. Also American 
History has been made a separate chair, under the 
exceptional and unconstrained loyalty to his known wishes 
of the wife and son of Publius V. Rogers, '46. This faithful 
Utican knew this College and loved it well, and set a lifelong 
and final example of zeal for its power and fame that future 
citizens well may emulate. Oneida county has contained and 
shall contain nothing of better fame than this prayer-planted 
and time-withstanding school. Some of her youth have gone 
further but have fared no better. Well may all this region 
accent the good report of its well-placed College and aug- 
ment the usefulness of that in which they have a birthright 
share. 

There is nothing in New York, or in New England either, 
that can assure a more adequate and symmetrical discipline 
for stout and capable life work. We will do no whining when 
here and there the son of an Alumnus is caught in the suction 
of Connecticut or New Jersey — the drift is strong and the al- 
lurements are many: but we will live to make those who resist 
these satisfied and glad. 

One day last March, the offer and promise was made of the 
Hall of Languages. Work was begun within a week. There 
it stands, not quite completed, but showing all that it will be a 
few weeks hence. It has been built well within the appropri- 
ation, and in its solid beauty will endure with its twin Hall of 
Science as a silent but constant education. It fills the south 
end of the quadrangular middle campus. The "back campus" 
with its former unsightlinesses is gone. "Good luck" to the 
warm hand of its modest giver and hurrah for '69. Nor will 
I now omit to speak of the charming well-house that '97 has 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 27 

erected. It is exemplary, and the pledge of a loyal and be- 
loved class. 

The site of this College is itself an idyll — "the elms and the 
poplars weaving a well shaded grove." The campus has had 
much recent care, and for its care there have been many gen- 
erous personal contributions here heartily owned. Thanks to 
the ready hand of Hamilton B. Tompkins, '65, its extent is 
this year more than doubled, reaching now the expanse of more 
than ninety acres. The undergraduates appreciate the gift 
that incited and made possible the summer's work upon the 
athletic ground now to be named, at the request of its patron, 
John R. Myers, '87, the Steuben Field. Under Mr. Myers' 
cordial provision all that yet remains to be done by way of 
gradingand filling will be completed in 1898. May it witness many 
a generous rivalry both between classes and guests, and never 
be shadowed by envy or unfairness. Hamilton stands squarely 
for honest competition. Games or events may sometimes 
misgo: but honor never. With that proviso we will play for 
all we are worth. 

I urged, on that same day, the needs of the Library, and the 
fifth annual appropriation of ^1,000 is now in force. Our needs 
go further, but the gear is at least lubricated. The ;^2,000 be- 
quest for the historical alcove made by our noble late Henry 
Kendall, '40, is soon to be applied. A Librarian's whole time 
is now given to the books and their readers. 

\ urged then, and urge once more, our great need of Scholar- 
ships. There have been slight additions: but we want some 
believer in Hamilton's opportunity to furnish ^50,000 for this 
good use. What we have is made to go as far as it can 
go: but twice what we have would mean much enlarged classes. 
This is an investment in picked men, and benefaction can as- 
sure no more specific returns. 

But things are coming our way, and our song today is all in 
the major key. We have better apparatus and appliances of 
all kinds. The new waterworks is one marked gain for con- 
venience and for health. We are moving, and shall not stop. 
When the day comes, if it should come, that we cease to advance, 
I shall be sure that my work isdone,and thatit is time to surrender 
the captaincy to better hands. Meanwhile I will hold OO". and 
rejoice. And I say a little Latin to those who are seeking the 



28 HAMILTON COLLEGE, 

joy of wise investment while they live — ''si quceritis Collegium, 
adspiciteV 

We are not asking for ourselves: but for our time, our 
country, and for God. I take Paul's literal word for it — "the 
Lord loveth an hilarious giver." There is no such sweet fun 
as generosity. We have made good beginning — a year that in 
realty and endowment increases us by over $200,000 is to be 
"writ large" in our annals: but we want (of course at suitable 
short intervals) several more years of the same kind. Against 
some future festal day I mention, first, a Hall of Philosophy, 
suitable to house Philosophy and Ethics, History, Rhetoric 
and Law. It will come, unless all signs fail, and it shall stand 
to seal the quadrangle on the north. Then shall our dormitories 
be at last rid of their incongruous recitation rooms. Next, I 
greatly desire a substantial Commons Hall, where not without 
butter the whole college can eat its daily bread. For I am 
certain that all that centralizes the college life intensifies it. 
We want right on this campus the most compact and coherent 
assembling, in which, professors and students, in an active and 
responsive community of learning and of life, shall each feel 
and enlarge every other. We want a place where at all times 
returning graduates can be at home. By and by the tide will 
set so strong for the emphasis of locality that we shall need, 
and get, a Kirkland hiu, and without disreputable attachments. 
Can I too strongly plead for all that throws us close together 
— one whole eager guild of men, for the four initial years, and 
the forty more, in which, more than in the ruddiness of their 
beginning, the collective and unitary fellowship of a true and 
life-long college bond is realized. All that identifies us with 
all the rest is good, and all else is inferior. Let us, having one 
mother, become one family, with the whole daily and perennial 
spontaneity of close contact. Open every circuit and this hill- 
side will be illuminated by something brighter than dynamos 
can furnish. And then when the tide is flowing strong some 
good heart shall "come to the kingdom" with a grand Dormi- 
tory. And then shall rise a thoro modern Laboratory of Chem- 
istry, and a fire-proof Library, and a stone Observatory, mind- 
ful of old fame, whence shall peer into "the wide awe and 
wisdom of the night" one of the great telescopes of the world 
— bearing^on one side the name of Peters and on the other of 



HAMILTON COLLEGE. 29 

Litchfield! And of course we want several of our Professor- 
ial Chairs to have solider legs. 

Meanwhile someone will furnish us that golf-course, and that 
swimming-tank, and that bowling alley. Oh, they will all 
come, and in a splendid campanile tower rising where "Kirk- 
land's folly" stood, a chime of bells, votive to the 184 Federal- 
ists who went down from here to the great war, and votive to 
America's God, shall ring "Home, Sweet Home," while the 
heroic bronze of Alexander Hamilton shall stand with that 
grace and fire he plead with at the Poughkeepsie Convention, 
and which somehow and so long has been indigenous to the 
College that bears his name and ever keeps his fame as one of 
its choicest themes. 

Remember, my quizzical friends, that the prime function of 
the prophet is to introduce what he foretells. Some voice, 
would to God it might be mine, — but some voice, shall hail the 
day when all these visions shall be realities, and three hundred 
students (that's my mark!) shall shout under the same old 
Blue and Buff and make these very walls rattle their long 
Amen. I am not ashamed of my hope, and shall not be. 

It is coming, and our business is to expect it, to get by the 
shoulders and pull it over the line of the dawn. Here's to the 
Hamilton that has been, and that now is, and that surely is to 
be! Rah! for it, and ready\ It has been a late, but is already a 
passing fashion, to encroach upon, to patronize, to disparage, 
the function of the true college; to emphasize the technical as 
if it alone were the practical; to crowd out by the specialistic 
that which is prior, primary, and inseparable from every effi- 
cient work — the disciplinary. 

The A. B. is in some quarters bestowed under a sophistical 
theory that borrows its more difficult impriTnatur to cover the 
courses that would get its historical distinctiveness and dis- 
tinction without meeting its well-tested demands. Not here! 
Let those who think that "one study is as good as another" 
exalt their appropriate bachelor degrees, and stamp alleged 
"equivalents" with their true titles. So will we do, even if we 
stand alone in it, nor attempt with the imitation of Esau's hands 
to claim what the voice of Jacob should ask in vain. The best 
extant credit of the genuine A.B.is its imitation; but ih^ petitio 
pri?icipii lacks both cogency and comity. 

As I end I must not fail to express my gratitude to the 



30 HAMILTON COLLEGE. 

faithful mechanics whose handiwork has gone into all these com- 
pleting results, and my joy that no accident has marred our 
satisfaction. Also I must name the ubiquitous competency of 
our superintendent. It is an early Sophomore and an early 
task that gets up in the morning before Cornelius deRegt! I 
have had in him my shrewdest counsellor of detail and 
management, and the most efficient of executives. Without 
his promptness and minuteness these ^60,000 could not have 
been administered with the thoroness and economy which they 
have attained. Nor will I cease and not have voiced our joy 
that one whose modesty refused the place prepared for him 
on this day's program is still ours. What is a trifle like fifty- 
four years? Why, he will be teaching Theocritus to our 
p-randsons! He and Victoria hold the records! 

I am loth to let you go. This autumnal day fading to- 
ward its brown twilight is all too short for our merriment and our 
thanksgiving. We have stood in a zone of light and love 
where we would fain tarry longer. Your presences have 
helped make "sun in winter." In the name of that intangible, 
invisible spirit — the College — the College we love, I bid you all, 
dear guests, a true goodbye. 

May you all again — 

"pay one visit here, 
Nor pay but one, but come for many, 
Many and many a happy year." 




HAMILTON COLLEGE, 31 



These names should be added to the still far imperfect list 
of the guests of November i6th: Hon. Henry J. Cookinham, 
'67; Hon. John W. Church, '72; Rev. Charles H. VanWie, '74. 

Since the occasion which this pamphlet records, scores of 

letters from Alumni and friends have been received, glowing 

with satisfaction and enthusiasm. They must all put it down 

to come next time; for there is a 'next time' coming. The date 

is not yet made ! But that date can be advanced by a new zeal 

and by that multiplication of individual effort in which every 

one of us who loves the old College shall see that he himself 
is counted in. 

We can talk of Hamilton and her plans and place and prom- 
ise to the men who have boys to send to college. 

We can all stand in with the Alumni Fund scheme, the re- 
port of which for last June is on a later page here repeated. 

We can commend Hamilton to investors who are trying to 
use the "perilous stuff" where they can see it begin to do good 
before their heirs get a chance to haggle over a residuum. A 
building here, a chair there, an alcove yonder, and a few inter- 
stitial scholarships. Exegisti monumejihim! Let us teach that — 
and learn it. And at the remotest, — "where there's a will 
there's a way"! Perhaps not the best way, but not the worst. 

And we (for surely the first person plural is our stronghold) 
can come up the hill next June and give a great rousement to 
the first Commencement day held on our own domain. 

In a Common Council meeting, an ingenuous alderman rose 
and said — "As to this wooden pavement, gentlemen, all that is 
necessary is that we put our heads together and the thing is 
done"! But all that we need, (everything is possible to this) 
is that we put our hearts together. Ubi cor ibi nianus. Which 
is also Latin. 



The Root Hall of Science will be open for use by 
December 6th. 

The Benedict Hall of Languages will be ready for full oc- 
cupancy by the very first of second term. 

The Chapel Organ will begin to be placed December 21st, 
and should be ready for opening by January loth. 

The completion of the filling and grading of the Steuben 
Field will be undertaken early in the spring. 



L.J.DI\HI\I ur »^UINOKtC>i> 



029 911 059 



Hamilton Alumni Fund. 

June, 1897. 

The plan adopted by the General Alumni Association, under 
which every Hamilton Alumnus was invited to become a sub- 
scriber to a current General Fund, is now three years old. The 
first year it yielded ^1187, the second year ;^I239, and for this 
year ^1322 is reported, as follows: 



:lass 






AMOUNT 


PERSONS 


CLASS 






AMOUNT PERS 


1839 ... $ I. 




I87I ... ^ 70 


5 


1841 . 






20. 




1872 






20 


2 


1842 






250. 




1873 






67 


10 


1846 






3- 




1874 






15 


2 


1847 






10. 




1875 






75 


7 


1848 






10. 




1876 






10 


I 


1850 






5. 




1877 






15 


2 


1851 . 






55. 




1878 






20 


I 


1856 






5v 




1879 






10 


I 


1857 






100. 




I88I 






15 


2 


1858 






10. 




1882 






26 


2 


1859 






10. 




1883 . 






30 


2 


1861 






25- 




1886 






10 


I 


1862 






50. 




1889 






10 


I 


1863 






5. 




1890 






10 


I 


1864 






100. 




1896 






I 


I 


1865 






57. 


2 


_ 


— 


1866 






50. 




;^i252 


66 


1867 






50. 


I From 


non-graduates, 70 


3 


1869 






22. 









1870 






10. 










^1322 


69 



61 Subscribers (^442.) have not paid this year. 

The Class of '73 holds the record for numbers participating. 

This plan is again called to your attention and regard. No 
definite sum is urged: but it is urged that every one should 
bear an individual part. We care more for the many than the 
much. A very small sum from each will be a large aggregate 
from all. Any subscriber may withdraw by simple notification. 
The contributions for 1897-98 will be due "on or before May 
1st," 1898. Your name promptly sent to the College Treasurer, 
Dr. T. B. Hudson, Clinton, with however small amount you 
see fit to specify, will be a stimulus to this beginning (it is 
only that, as yet,) which will help to draw all of us closer to- 
gether and closer to the Alma Mater whose cause claims our 
memory and our tributes. This scheme has been such a suc- 
cess elsewhere, and in many ways so influential, that we may 
well continue these reminders. 

Theodore M. Pomeroy, '42, 

Chairma?i of Committee. 






L. ■ »■ 4 ■ 


















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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

029 911 059 



